(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a level shifter and a driving circuit including the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a driving circuit for controlling a switching operation of a switch and a level shifter configured to the driving circuit.
(b) Description of the Related Art
There is an advantage that the possibility of an error occurring in output information is low when information of a continuous current is input to a level shifter. However, the power consumption of a level shifter increases. If the power consumption of a level shifter is decreased in an attempt to overcome this problem, there is a drawback in that a propagation delay increases. To overcome the prior problems, information for controlling on/off of a switching element of a level shifter is transmitted by using a short pulse signal, and a latch circuit is used in order to maintain the transmitted information for a predetermined time. The power consumption and the propagation delay of the level shifter are then decreased. However, the latch circuit is vulnerable to electrical noise generated by an electronic power source situated around the latch circuit. When an output of the latch circuit is changed by the electrical noise, the status of a switching element controlled by a driving circuit can be changed in unintentional ways. Particularly, accuracy of a switching operation in a gate driving circuit of a converter is very important. The converter includes a high side switch and a low side switch, and supplies electrical power according to switching operations of the high side switch and the low side switch. When the latch circuit is incorrectly operated by the noise, the high side switch and the low side switch can be turned on. Then, the switches can be destroyed by an overcurrent that flows through the high side and the low side switches. The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.